FAQ: Looking at a good Wall Switch for my Hue Bulbs (2020 Short FAQ) ( also applies to other brands of smart bulbs)

Are you referring to this thread?
FAQ: Philips Hue and Other Smart Bulbs - What sort of light switches to use with them? (Long FAQ)

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Yes. If you are interested in discussions about altering the wiring so that you can use any Z wave or zigbee master switch By causing it to not cut the current to the smart bulbs, that discussion is in the long FAQ.

Thanks alot both of you. That helped alot

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According to the last poster in the long FAQ, there was a Inovelli brand switch that allowed for the switch to be set to “always on” in the device handler and then program the buttons to control the smart bulbs such as Hue. This allowed the load to be controlled manually if need be, but also retain good smart bulb functionality. Inovelli is out of stock and their new switch keeps being pushed out.

  • Are there any other ZWave switches that function in this way that also just look like normal Decora switches?

The scenario above is preferred, but I am not against hard-wiring the lights to hot. The most popular are talked about auxiliary is the WT00Z, but it is not longer available. Is there a new “most popular” networked aux switch?

2021 update

You can now do this with several of the Zooz models as well through a configuration option. Contact their support for more details.

https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/products/zooz-z-wave-plus-on-off-light-switch-zen21

I read the whole FAQs here, but still I am unable to find a wired 2 Gang(or more) Zigebee/Zwave SmartSwitch that will do the following:

  1. Work with Smart Bulbs, hence not cutting the power completely
  2. When the physical buttons are pressed, only a command should be send to the SmartThings Hub and then back to the Smart Bulbs for On/Off status.
  3. It should work with Live wire and Load Wires, no Neutral.
  4. Country: EU/Italy

Preference: They could be switches like Zenismart, Neocoolcam or Relays like Sonoff Mini or Fibaro.

Thank you

If you are willing to also get a Hue bridge, and the smart bulbs to be controlled by the switch also work with a hue bridge, you will have a couple of easy options in Italy.

First, right now you can get a Friends of Hue batteryfree switch and put it in place of the existing switch. These are made by several different manufacturers, including Vimar and Senic. These work well as a parallel means of control and look like regular switches. The switch itself will be visible in hue hue app but will not be visible to smartthings. But the bulbs themselves will be visible to smartthings. So you can control the bulbs from regulars smartthings automations, and you have a nice wall switch that will not cut power to the bulbs. These are also available in single gang or double gang EU style.

Here are the Senic models, although again they are available from a number of different companies.

No wiring is required, but they also don’t need batteries because they operate on the “Zigbee green power“ profile which harvests a tiny bit of energy just from you physically pushing the switch.

If you happen to use an iPhone, they can also be set up with Homekit as long as they are communicating to the Hue Bridge.

So this is a simple and straightforward way to get a wall switch for any smart lights which are using a hue bridge. And those same lights can also be controlled from smartthings.

Separately, Phillips hue itself is releasing a new “wall switch module“ in Europe in a few months which is designed to use your existing switches but in a similar way. It is an in wall module that fits behind your switch. At that point the switch will no longer control that circuit branch, instead, it will send instructions to the Hue bridge. As far as integration with smartthings, it would be the same as the “friends of Hue“ which is: you can use it as a parallel means of control, but smartthings cannot control it directly. It’s intended primarily for those who want to keep their existing switches for aesthetic reasons.

So those are the easiest solutions for Italy right now. I don’t know of anything else available for the EU that works without a neutral and also bypasses the circuit to leave the smart bulbs on And also works with smartthings. You used to be able to do this with a fibaro Dimmer 2 module, but I don’t think those are working right now with the new V3 app and Fibaro has indicated that they are not interested in providing custom code. :disappointed_relieved:

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Thanks for trying to offer some solutions, but I am not into buying another bridge/hub. It will just complicate things. For example the hub, network switch etc, are connected to an UPS, in case the power goes out, SMTH will still function.

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But all the bulbs are out
 Not on the UPS.

Will a battery powered pushbutton suit your needs?

A small pushbutton from Xiaomi, Hue or Ikea.

Leave the 220 volt wall switch on (tape over it) and have the small pushbutton take over.

Ikea :
Ikea_E1812

Xiaomi :

Philips Hue :

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Actually I went with these two:

And

Now I have to figure out how to enable the dim function on long push of a button. I see that webcore has a child button app. It doesn’t work with the new SMT local automations. I mean you can assign 1 % to button 1 and 100 % to button 2, but if you push and hold any buttons it will not raise or lower the intensity.

I appreciate your hints(maybe I will find out about some new products), but the battery ones are just workarounds in my opinion. Sure you can bring along those remotes when you are sitting in the couch an such, but the aesthetics of taping or blocking the psychical switch it seems like I’m “patching” my house
 :slight_smile:

Nevertheless , if in time you stumble upon a real switch, please notify me
Thank you

Hello Marius, do you have issues with battery life on these? I bought the same products, added them easily to my ST Hub, but battery won’t last more than a week. The motion sensors are okay, but any of the buttons are problems.

-Walt

Sadly the battery issue with the Ikea devices is a known issue affecting multiple hubs, not just smartthings. Some people, but not everyone, are having better success if they use the edge driver instead. Smartthings engineering says they are aware of the issue but don’t have a fix. Use the following thread for additional discussion.

Ikea 5 button remote killing batteries